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Atari Edge Interviews Walaber About His Game "Wall Jump Ninja" For The Atari 2600

Wall Jump Ninja is a recent Atari 2600 game created by Walaber, an incredibly talented and creative game developer. With so many fans of the Atari 2600 console, we wanted to bring you an exclusive interview with the man himself, where he shares a bit about the game, some background, challenges, and future game development plans, as well as where you can get a copy of the game for yourself.

AtariEdge:

Wall Jump
Ninja is a simple, yet very entertaining concept. How did you come up
with the game idea?

Walaber:

It's a bit of a long
story. I was participating in a private game jam, where you have to
make a simple game based on a theme or rule in a short amount of
time. The theme was "1 button game". I wanted to make
some kind of platforming game, and the 1 button constraint meant that
I'd have to have some kind of simplified, limited moveset for the
player character. And I've always loved wall jumping in games, ever
since Ninja Gaiden on the NES. So I came up with an idea for a game
that was just 100% wall jumps. The original prototype was for PC,
and had larger, more complex level design.

AtariEdge:

Was this
your first game project for an Atari console?

Walaber:

It was! I had some
previous experience programming in assembly in my high school days- I
used usenet groups and early web sources to learn asm for the Z80
processor in my high school graphing calculator (TI-85). So it
wasn't particularly daunting to approach making a game entirely in
low-level programming code- in fact it was a lot of fun! I also
really enjoyed learning how the 2600 works, seeing just how simple
the machine is, and how your code has to sort of manually generate an
NTSC signal each frame.

AtariEdge:

How many
levels are there total in Wall Jump Ninja, and do you have any tips,
or hidden secrets you would like to share with our readers?

Walaber:

In theory the game
is endless, with the rooms just getting progressively harder. In
practice, it gets nearly impossible around room 65 or so. I've also
heard that there may be a bug somewhere in the 70s where it becomes
impossible to progress further- I think the door either disappears or
perhaps is too narrow to pass through? I haven't confirmed it
because I can't get that far :)

Wall Jump Ninja is
similar to some other Atari 2600 games in that in order to save space
on the cartridge, the actual game code itself is used as semi-random
data, which is used to determine things like the door placement,
spike placement, etc. The levels are the same every time because the
order of the code stays the same. During development, when I could
change some code, the entire string of rooms would change with it!

AtariEdge:

Why did
you choose to create the game for Atari 2600?

Walaber:

I had read about
some other game developers making games for older consoles (NES
primarily), and I think that planted the seed in my mind that it
would be a fun project. Once I found the time to start the project,
I remembered my Wall Jump Ninja prototype from before, and thought
the gameplay would make a good fit for the console. I specifically
chose the 2600 because it was the first console we had when I was
growing up, and I have a lot of fond memories playing river raid with
my family.

AtariEdge:

Was the
final release of the game in 2014? How long did it take to create the
game?

Walaber:

I worked on the game
in my spare time roughly from November 2014 to the v1.0 release in
late January 2015, so about 2-3 months of work. A bug was found in
the high score AtariVOX code so I issued a v1.1 in May of 2016 that
fixed the bug.

AtariEdge:

What was
your biggest challenge with creating a game for the Atari 2600?

Walaber:

Definitely fitting
the game into a "standard" 4K ROM cartridge. I had to
continually think of ways to write the same logic in less code, or
get away with less data needed to create the graphics, sounds, etc.
Eventually I was able to squeeze the code enough to include several
difficulty modes, a simple "attract mode", and high-score
saving with AtariVOX, so I'm happy with the outcome. It was
challenging, but also one of the most enjoyable parts of the
development as well. You really feel like Macgyver when you find a
way to save bytes with a clever trick or hack :)

AtariEdge:

Do you
have any plans to create other games for the Atari consoles?

Walaber:

I would love to. I
have an unfinished project called "Taxi Panic" that I'd
really love to get back to and finish some day. The problem is just
not having enough time in the day!

AtariEdge:

I have
been playing Wall Jump Ninja on the ATgames Atari Portable, and the
game play on that system is amazing. What Atari compatible systems or
emulators do you know the game works on?

Walaber:

The game runs great
on original hardware (I bought one along with a CRT TV off eBay to
play the game "for real"), and as far as I know it works on
all versions of the hardware and TVs, if you use the correct ROM for
NTSC, PAL, PAL60.

AtariEdge:

Where can
our readers download or purchase a copy of the game, and can they get
a download of the game manual anywhere?

Walaber:

A ROM of the game is
available on by website http://walaber.com (check the "history"
section). The game is also available for purchase at AtariAge, where
if comes with a box and manual. If people are interested I can also
put up a digital version of the manual online somewhere.

AtariEdge:

I know I
asked a similar question already, but since you are an indie
developer, I have to ask. Do you have any plans to develop games for
the Atari VCS when it's released?

Walaber:

I'm definitely
interested in the new VCS. At the very least, some kind of revamped
version of Wall Jump Ninja would be cool! First I'll wait and see
how their developer support and business model pans out of course.
But it looks like an interesting system!

AtariEdge:

Where is
the best place for our readers to follow you, and get updates to your
future game development?

Walaber:

I have a website at
http://walaber.com, and I also post quite frequently to twitter
(@walaber) with GIFs, videos, and images of whatever I'm working on
at the moment (which lately are some physics-based games for mobile
and PC).

AtariEdge:

Thank you
again for taking the time out for an interview with Atari Edge.

Walaber:

Thank you, and
thanks again for noticing my game!

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